No, Rashtrapati Bhavan didn’t organise ‘special screening’ of Pathaan – Here’s the truth

There is news going around in the media that a special screening of ‘Pathan’ was organised in the Rashtrapati Bhavan. This news went viral after a tweet by SM Khan, who was the press secretary of former President APJ Abdul Kalam.

Sharing some pictures, Khan claimed that he attended the special screening of ‘Pathaan’ at Rashtrapati Bhavan. He also tagged Shah Rukh Khan and his manager Pooja Dadlani. ABP News, in its headline, wrote,” Special screening of Shah Rukh Khan’s film ‘Pathaan’ at the Cultural Center of Rashtrapati Bhavan.”
DNA said, “Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan screened at Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre, former Press Secretary shares pic.”

“Free Press Journal’ also took the same headline. This was also shared in Bengali and Marathi media. In this background, a kind of anger was seen even among BJP supporters, who were divided on this issue. While questioning, a few of the supporters asked, “The film which glorifies Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI and shows Indian RAW officers as traitors, how come its special screening takes place in Rashtrapati Bhavan?” few asked, on the one hand, there was a demand to boycott this movie, on the other hand, its special screening is being held at Rashtrapati Bhavan?

“There is a club for current and retired employees of Rashtrapati Bhavan and on every Saturday screening of a film is organised for the members. And, this was the cases with ‘Pathaan’ Movie,” reported OpIndia as BJP leader and the founder of ‘World Intellectual Forum’, Sudhandu Mittal as saying.

According to Sudhansu Mittal, the screening of Pathan Movie was not organised in Rashtrapati Bhavan. If this was the case, then President would have been present there. President Secretariat said the same.

It is worth mentioning that President Droupadi Murmu was not present during the screening. So, is it necessary to take permission from President’s Secretary to organise the screening of any film? On this issue, Sudhansu Mittal said, “there is no need to take permission. This is decided by the club.” He said that the last time a special screening of ‘The Kashmir Files’ was held in the club. He said SM Khan was lying.